CNET First Look

iDevices' pint-sized kitchen thermometer packs a punch

[MUSIC]
Hey, I'm Megan Mullerton for Cnet here with iDevices Kitchen Thermometer Mini.
basically, this is a $40 kitchen thermometer with a twist.
Similar to iDevices' regular kitchen thermometer, the mini version is Bluetooth enabled and will pair to your phone and send you alerts when your food is done.
It's really just a more minimalist version of their regular kitchen thermometer.
It only has one thermometer probe.
It doesn't have a digital display that shows the temperature, but it does have an LED ring that'll show you the status of your food if you happen to be walking by the kitchen.
Performance wise, the temperature readings were just as accurate as the regular kitchen thermometer.
I tested it simultaneously with the kitchen thermometer during the whole chicken roasting test and the pork tenderloin test, and found really no difference in performance whatsoever.
You're also using the same I devises app to monitor the progress of your food and to receive those alerts when it's finished.
So just like the other review I really like the functionality of the app I think the graph could use a little bit of design work.
But other than that, it works extremely well.
So, I know that this is designed to be cute and compact, but one thing I don't like about it is that it's powered by a coin battery.
Coin batteries are those little coin shaped batteries that can go in watches or any smaller product.
So, it makes sense for this product.
But, a lot of us don't have coin batteries just sitting around the house.
So you have to make that effort to think to buy one.
And that's just a bit of an annoyance.
It's not a huge, huge deal breaker, but it's just something you'll have to think about.
The regular kitchen thermometer is powered by two AA batteries, and you probably have a bunch of those already hanging around your house.
It almost makes me wish that this had a USB port for charging, so that you didn't have to rely on the battery quite so much.
Because it can drain quickly.
For example, if you don't, make a concerted effort to turn it off after you use it, it will stay on for hours until it automatically shuts off.
That will completely zap the battery life and then you'll have to go out searching for another coin battery.
Another thing is that you actually have to turn on the device.
To use the app at all so if you wanted to scroll through the list of presets to find the food you want to cook you have to turn this on before you're even ready to cook another thing that could zap the battery.
In general though its performance is on par with the regular kitchen thermometer and it's a decent lower price option if you don't need two thermometer pros if you just need the one this is forty dollars compared to the kitchen thermometer is eighty dollars.
So while it's a bit more entry level, you're really getting the same performance.
Thanks for watching.
I'm Megan Malorson for CNET appliances.

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